Anways, Arien, Himaran, & GaladrielOTO, don't forget that the attack on Bassington's place must happen in the week that Devon is searching for ships and men to fight, because then after that, we take to the sea! And I figure that Hessa must come along for the boat ride also because after her cover is blown, there's no need in staying behind. I think she would much more enjoy going out with the rest of us.

Pio: [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] What an honor! I will get right on that!! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Earendil: Check your PMs please.

I've got the outline up and I'm going to run it by Earendil first. I'll post it in segments too since it's pretty long and detailed. And I don't want to ruin anything for the players! This is going to be absolutely exciting!!

-Maikafanawen

__________________
"They call this war a cloud over the land. But they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say, 'Sh*t, it's raining!'" -- Ruby, Cold Mountain

I wrote up a (granted, somewhat short :/) post for Hess, leading up to the moment where she meets "the associates, [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]" but I wasn't sure if it was right, so I thought it might be better if I posted it here first to see if it was okay. =)

Quote:

Hessa had risen out of her lethargy for long enough to run for water, clothes, and the warmest blankets she could find, but the scene in the little house little changed since we saw it last, days ago. Hess still sat next to the bed, leaning over occasionally to look concernedly into her mothers face. Her appearance, however, was noticably changed, her eyes red from lack of sleep, the edges of her always-laughing cherry mouth turned down, her usually glossy long black hair in unkempt clumps, and her face uncommonly sunken and pale. She barely moved from her stuporous pose when she heard the downstairs door slam, and stood up only when a shadow slowly projected itself from the entrance to the room.

"Letter for you, Miss Taiel," said a slightly rasping voice. A hand reached out from under the cover of a cloak and dropped a piece of heavy parchment on to the floor just in front of Hess. She opened the envelope bemusedly, looking up only when she had the words of the letter itself blinking in front of her eyes. But the man was already gone. Shaking her head at this, she began to read:

To Miss Hessa Taiel:
I have heard about your misfortunes and your mothers illness, and realize that you have urgent need of money at the moment, so I am offering you a job on the corsair side of the current conflict. If you would like to find out the particulars, please come to the Sea Dog Inn tonight to meet my two associates, who will be sure to brief you in on your role.
Jythralo Doran

Hess rubbed her eyes. This all seemed almost unrealistic. And, casting a concerned eye on her mother, possibly dangerous. But then maybe she could go to the inn and be back in a few hours if anything went wrong. Yes, that sounded good enough... leaning down to push her mothers graying hair from her eyes, she whispered: "Ill be back soon, mother." Then, walking quietly into the next room, she looked around. Finding the mirror, she almost gasped and quickly ran a comb through her hair, wincing as it got caught in the knots. Then, after a moment of hesitation, she bent down and pulled out her dagger and, sliding it next to her leg in her boot, made sure that her ring was still on her finger, blade safely inside. These safety precautions taken, she uncertainly looked out the window, and then, making her mind up totally, clattered down the stairs leading to the outside street.

Opening the door to the Sea Dog Inn, she carefully looked in. Raucous laughter resounded inside, and the establishment certainly wasnt lacking in dodgy-looking types. She lifted her skirts and, swallowing her slight fear, walked in, looking around. Suddenly, she remembered that she had no idea who she was supposed to be meeting anyway... straining her mind, she could only recall that there would be two of them. Sitting down on the edge of a rather grimy wooden seat, she could only wait.

Hessa is already supposed to be on the "inside" of Bassington's mansion when she goes to meet Acacia and Jurex. I would just say that she's been a servant at the mansion for at least a few weeks in order for her to help the corsairs get into the place.

After Hessa meets with Jurex/Acacia at the inn, Jurex can begin his attack. It will involve possible drugging of the guards and household by Hessa during the evening meal, and letting the raiding party into the mansion. This would make for a fairly easy assualt.

So as not to ruin the whole story for everyone and leave room for improvission, I'm going to release little parts of the outline at a time. The first relevant part is this:

Quote:

- Avershire is 'employed' by Devon. No one knows exactly how many ships Doran has.

- Avershire is after finding himself a crew and ship. Devon goes to look for other captains/ships and tells Avershire that he will gather them all to him the day before they are set to meet Doran on the ocean. Avershire has a feeling that Devon's luck will be sour but will be surprised to find that he recruits no others.

- Avershire attains a single 113 ton, 65 ft. sloop, a small crew of 48 men (the sloop is made to be manned by 70 men), and 12, nine pound catapults (five on each side, and two on either side of the bow; the aft side catapults are able to be moved quickly for backside firing). This will be Devon & his companions' only ship.

- So, meeting the time requirement, Doran will plan to meet them on the sea to settle the fate of Umbar.

More will come later.

I'm working on a Devon post now and Arvedui, Aman, or Nuranar, if you guys want to do any posting they're welcome too.

If they split up, surely he couldn't follow all of them. Ooh, a plan - it is probable that Callath is seen as being the smallest threat, plus, to avoid suspicion, the corsairs can't stop him from going to work - could Telson have a horse?

Maybe if Devon/Calnan went to where Telson was staying and let him know that at the Umbar stables, his horse was ready; yes, so he doesn't have a horse, but hopefully he'll pick up on the hint and get over there. After splitting up to their blameless positions, Calnan and Devon would then meet with Callath and Telson at the stables.

Good idea Aman. I figured that Doran would probably have sent a few men about at least but I've gotten rid of one of Devon's and sent the last one astray. I also made it so that Callath more or less figured out who his follower was (since Callath is quick like that [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] ) and got rid of him for the moment. Realistic? Probably not but it's going to work for us at the moment until Telson is informed.

Then once Calnan meets us we can all make up our plan and meet later at the Snifter and Song. But Devon still thinks that he has a guy on him so he's going to be careful and Calnan's guy will still be there too. Corac will catch up with them later as well.

Is that cool for now? They can run into Avershire when they go to the Snifter and Song tonight (RPG wise tonight that is). And what do you guys think of having Pearlle aboard as the navigationalist person and for other scientific reasons?

Ta!
-Maikafanawen

__________________
"They call this war a cloud over the land. But they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say, 'Sh*t, it's raining!'" -- Ruby, Cold Mountain

Hey guys, I'm really sorry but I don't think I'm going to be able to post the next few days, as my computer has been infiltrated by a nasty virus which refuses to let me go on Internet Explorer. &gt;.&lt; Very sorry, I'm going to have it repaired as soon as possible.

And congratulations on your title Maika! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

After Hessa lets the corsairs into the estate, and they perform their assigned tasks, Jurex will mention that Hessa will have to come with them. To make the story more interesting (and realistic), could Hessa NOT want to go with them? After all, she wants to stay with her mother.

Of course, Jurex will not take no for an answer, and forces her to go with them. Perhaps in the sea battle, Hessa could betray the corsairs in some way, turning the battle in Devon's favor?

Computer fixed, virus gone- I'm back. Sure, that idea seems fine to me. Hess will be unwilling. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] I'll start writing again- my new almost finished post was deleted when the virus came- but I'll likely be able to write a new one tomorrow.

Apologies about my unforeseen absence - all ye who fall under the species of 'student' may understand my problem. English coursework + English presentation + (IT coursework x 2) + usual homework
= a calculation to recoil from in horror
= strange things done with Aman's time. Strange how it can come to '0'.

Anyway, am back and homework free for tonight [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Garth won't be there long - he'll send one of the stablehands to the police (possibly Callath, who knows how Garth's mind works [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] ), then manhandle the unconcious corsair out into the yard with another of them (he wouldn't dream of asking one of his highly-esteemed visitors to help) and dump the man into one of the troughs of water, I shouldn't be surprised, then stand by mancingly with a pitchfork until the police come - and considering the fact a corsair is involved and even more that the several of the finest horses ever bred, belonging to some of the nobles, and also involved, I don't suppose they'll be too long a-coming.

Calnan, there is another way in, which Callath has probably showed Calnan, as they have been friends for more than a wee while; I mentioned in the first post that there were two main stable blocks in the Umbar stables, side by side - if he approached from a different direction and got himself slightly disorientated, possibly in an attempt to throw off the pursuers, he might stumble into the wrong one (we're currently in the right one, Calnan might arrive in the left one?). He would hear Garth's voice maybe and stay quiet for a while then, when it had died down a wee bit and Garth was happily busy menacing the corsair, he could come into the other one.

This is just an idea [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] whatever.

As for the meeting in the Snifter and Song...well, in Arvedui's post, Callath gave Telson a quick run down on what had happened, so its not that; maybe we were meeting to discuss it more fully? Although the stables will do for a quiet place to talk without (generally) being disturbed.

They haven't talked on what they're going to do about the situation they're in at all so they need to do that. Devon is just going to review it all and suggest finding a captain, ship, crew etc. He's driven by the need to save Adeline.

Quote:

Why will there be a meeting at the Snifter and Song later that same day?

It's not a meeting, they're just having dinner.

Quote:

And most importantly (to me), Where do you want Calnan coming in on this? I can have him show up right now, but with Garth in there...I'm not sure what direction this meeting is going to take.

Go with what Aman suggested. That sounds good. And the meeting will just be them planning out what they're going to do.

Another thing I've to address. Brinniel has not posted on the Discussion thread for over a month and her PM box is full. Therefore I will be taking over her character. I'm PMing someone right now to see if she would be interesting in writing for her though since she was interested in the place earlier. If not though, I'll take over Adeline.

Also I've bad news. I had a wee bit of an accident over here on my end of real life and one thing led to another and I've landed myself in quite a bit of trouble. So I'm very grounded. However, my mother is not so unforgiving that she will keep me from my responsibilities and I am allowed to keep up with the RPG. I don't know how much time I'm going to be given but I will take every chance I get to write, read, and post. I don't think it will be a problem but just so's you know.

And I believe that's all. I've got some things to take care of tonight and tomorrow though so I won't be able to get up the post I wanted. I'm really sorry guys! I know this is going slow but I hope to get back on with things. It may very well turn out that I've got more time since I'm grounded from everything else except for eating and sleeping. *sigh* Well, on we go!

-Maikafanawen

__________________
"They call this war a cloud over the land. But they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say, 'Sh*t, it's raining!'" -- Ruby, Cold Mountain

Earendil, didn't we decide that Doran doesn't have a mansion. He isn't important enough or even wealthy enough for a mansion. I thought he had a typical town house. I mean he is an ex-corsair, only rich Gondorians are able to have mansions and even so there are only 2-3 in all of Umbar. Coastal cities don't even have lots of mansions, and certainly not Umbar (a Middle-Earth Tortuga). Why don't we just keep the Bassington's in their own house while the corsairs run it. But Doran really really shouldn't have a mansion.

Otherwise, great job Himaran! Now that the corsair side is all ready to put to sea (Earendil can you wrap up a good Doran post for us?) I'll write up a summary post and get us out there too as soon as I can.